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Depression linked to ‘internal jet lag', circadian study finds

Depression linked to internal jet lag study finds

Circadian rhythms controlling sleep were out of sync in a quarter of young people with depression in this Sydney-based study. Read more

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A Sydney study of 69 young people attending mental-health clinics found that almost a quarter showed signs of “internal jet lag,” where core body temperature, melatonin and cortisol cycles were out of sync even though they hadn’t crossed time zones. By measuring all three circadian markers together for the first time, researchers led by Dr Joanne Carpenter and Prof Ian Hickie discovered that this misalignment correlated with more severe depression symptoms and differed from the normal adolescent shift to later sleep times.

While the study stops short of proving internal jet lag causes mood disorders, it opens up fresh ways to think about treatment—perhaps by realigning body clocks alongside traditional therapies. The researchers say larger, longer-term trials are needed, but early evidence suggests targeting circadian rhythms could become a novel tool in tackling youth depression and bipolar disorder.

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